Increase in banking fraud via phishing

According to a recent report there has been an increase in the number of phishing attacks, which is where fraudsters send emails with links to fake bank accounts to consumers in order to get them to link to the site, which they think is their bank website, and enter their account details. The information comes from the payment clearing agency APACS.

The figures show that in the first six months of the year twenty one thousand phishing attacks involving bank and building societies were recorded. This reflected a huge rise of around 180% compared to the same period for last year. However, official from APACS have said that actual losses may not be as high as last year because more and more people were becoming aware of this type of scam.

An official from the agency said that consumers needed to remain alert in order to fully benefit from online banking services. She said: “In the future we expect more and more people to use online banking to make payments rather than just checking balances, particularly in light of the recent introduction of the new faster payments service.”

She added: “However, we strongly urge banking customers to make sure they remain wary of online scams such as unsolicited e-mails claiming to be from their bank.”